thin as a yard of pump water

English

Etymology

A stream of water falling approximately three feet from a water pump into a bucket is both straight and thin.

Adjective

thin as a yard of pump water (not comparable)

1. (US, UK, dialectal) Very thin (skinny).
   • 1947, Lynn Doyle, Green Oranges: Stories:

     Her mother was betwixt and between, and her father the same; but Rosie was as thin as a yard of pump-water, and could—and did—eat like a beagle without ever putting-on an extra ounce. Maybe she was abusing her good-fortune.

   • 1965, Publications of the Folk-lore Society:

     She wadn't no summer morning to look at, poor soul, and her mistress kept her so thin as a yard of pump water. But there Providence knows best! There were a old fellow over by Aisholt, and he were such a upstanding courageous man he'd a […]

   • 1968, Katharine M. Briggs, Folktales of England, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 74:

     […] managed, but they all went on looking so thin as a yard of pump water except Dicky — and he grew fat.

   • 2014, Daniel P Mannix, Freaks: We Who Are Not As Others, eNet Press, →ISBN, page 139:

     […] puts away enough food to satiate a pack of ravenous hyenas and remains as thin as a yard of pump water. It's the injustice of the whole thing that infuriates me.

   • 2018, Gloria Cook, Never Just a Memory, Canelo, →ISBN:

     'Mmm. You're as pale as a lily and as thin as a yard of pump water. Mind you, a month or two out working in all weathers should pink you up, and rationing or no, I'll find something to put a bit of weight on you.'

References

references showing use, over time, in the US and UK

• Notes and Queries, 1878, page 171: “I don't see the humour of pump-water; but in Berks I have heard a thin damsel called "as straight as a yard of pump-water."”
• Joseph Wright (1905) The English Dialect Dictionary: T-Z; Supplement, page 566: “Phr. (1) straight up and down, like a yard of pump-water, said of a tall, thin person.”
• Frances M. Barbour (1965) Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases of Illinois, page 193
• 2000, Robert Hendrickson, The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 306:

  straight as a yard of pump water Given as a Vermont expression […]

• 2003, P.R. Wilkinson, Thesaurus of Traditional English Metaphors, Routledge, →ISBN:

  [Yks Som] as a yard o' pump-water Of a tall lanky girl; of straight hair.
  like a yard o' pump-water [sLan] Of a long and lugubrious face; feeble, listless ...

• 2003, Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, Routledge, →ISBN, page 466:

  Comparable is the Yorkshire, esp. the West Riding, simile applied to hair: as straight as a yard of pump water.

• 2010, Margaret J. Norrie, Driving on the Left: The Fork in the Road, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 40:

  "Jeannie's mother, when describing a girl with thick, long hair, would often say it was “as straight as a yard of pump water.” And that was true. But nobody knew what she meant unless they'd lived in Norfolk—the stream of water from the nozzle to the bucket on the ground would be about three feet—a yard."